An aircraft landing gear bay is a space within an aircraft that is configured to accommodate a stowed landing gear. The landing gear may have been designed specifically for the aircraft.
It can be desirable for the main strut of a landing gear to be longer than a standard landing gear main strut for a particular aircraft in order to raise the aircraft higher to improve ground clearance. However, unless the landing gear bay is redesigned to accommodate the increase in length, the landing gear must still be capable of retracting into the existing space within the bay. Hence the landing gear is required to shorten on retraction.
Various means are known by which to shorten a landing gear on retraction. This can involve a dedicated shortening mechanism which must be attached to a structural part of the landing gear bay.
However, an aircraft landing gear bay structure may not have been designed for a shortening landing gear and therefore there may not be a region that is sufficiently strong at which to attach a shortening mechanism.